LinkedIn’s adding a new element to their job ads which will highlight how your specific skills, as listed on your LinkedIn profile, match those the company is looking for.
As you can see here, now, to the right of the job description, there’ll be a new, scrollable listing of how your skills match up, giving you a better idea of your potential fit. That listing may include education level, skills, years of experience, and current job title – the advertiser will have the capability to select which elements they want to list as part of the job posting.
And as always, LinkedIn Premium members get the added ability to see how they rank against other applicants, based on the same criteria.
It’s the latest effort from LinkedIn to make better use of their data tools to improve their recruitment offerings. Given the vast professional dataset LinkedIn has access to, it’s somewhat surprising that they haven’t sought to utilize this more over the years, but since the company’s acquisition by Microsoft, data utilization has clearly been a key focus.
Late last year, LinkedIn unveiled their new ‘Talent Insights’ tools, which aim to provide recruiters with more in-depth knowledge about employment trends as they evolve, furthering their efforts to utilize the data they have in a more practical, actionable way. Such tools not only provide immediate assistance for recruiters, but they also highlight the massive potential of LinkedIn for such purpose – given the insights the company has, LinkedIn is best-placed to be able to provide intelligent recommendation tools and resources to help recruiters find the best fit.
From a general user perspective, LinkedIn has also added salary insights to job posts, and more recently, their ‘ask for a referral’ option to help highlight potential contact opportunities.
Their tools are still evolving – LinkedIn, as is their usual style, is developing its new capacities slowly. But it’s not hard to imagine the app growing to become the key platform for recruiters and job seekers, leaving all others in their wake.
In addition to the new match data, LinkedIn’s also adding a new “1-click apply” option for selected positions.
As explained by LinkedIn:
“With 1-Click Apply, you now have the option to save your basic information and resume so you can apply for a job with a single click or tap.”
You can see the “1 Click Apply” button on the above job ad example here, beneath the main description. Similar to lead gen forms, LinkedIn’s single click option is aimed at simplifying the application process, with a particular focus on mobile users. And given the majority of LinkedIn members now access the site via mobile, it makes some sense – though it does seem like the sort of thing you’d want to give more specific focus to with each job application.
To help ensure maximum success with these new tools, LinkedIn has also provided some advice on how to ensure your profile is optimized for the new features (particularly skills match):
- Keep your skills fresh – LinkedIn says that almost 40% of recruiters are now using skills to search for talent
- Update your location – Listing your location on your profile makes you up to 23X more likely to be found in search results
- Add your education – LinkedIn notes that having accurate education info will help connect you with more users, and expand your potential opportunities as a result
These are some good, logical additions for LinkedIn – which both seemingly make more sense than GIFs in LinkedIn messages and forced hashtags on posts (LinkedIn’s also now rolling out the capability to follow specific hashtags on the platform, if you’re interested). Indeed, tools like these connect more with LinkedIn’s core value proposition, and capitalize on the platform’s key strengths.
And with 562 million members, those strengths are only increasing. Expect to see more data tools along similar lines from LinkedIn rolling out at a steady pace.